Sadie Kingston, is a girl living in the aftermath. A year after surviving a car accident that killed her friend Trent and left her body and face scarred, she can’t move forward. The only person who seems to understand her is Trent’s brother, Max.

As Sadie begins to fall for Max, she's unsure if she is truly healed enough to be with him — even if Max is able to look at her scars and not shy away. But when the truth about the accident and subsequent events comes to light, Sadie has to decide if she can embrace the future or if she'll always be trapped in the past.

Review:

Courtney Stevens is an author who is going on my auto-buy list. Her books blow my away with their raw emotion and original characters. THE LIES ABOUT TRUTH is her sophomore book and is absolutely beautiful to read.

It was heartbreaking to see the aftermath of an accident that involved 5 friends where only 4 walked away from it. Stevens does a great job showcasing the emotional upheaval of such a tragedy while offering a glimmer of hope that these characters, told by Sadie's perspective, will be OK at the end.

I love Sadie. She was a tad rambly at time, but it was easy to slide into her head and understand what was driving her. I loved that her parents were so supportive and her relationship with Max.

The only downside was this book could have been 50 pages shorter and wrapped up a little more quickly, but other than that, this is a poignant and tumultuous story of loss, love and redemption.

Quote: We have no time. What we do have is an obstinate girl too absorbed in her own feelings and desires to wield the magic we need to survive.

Book Summary:
Publication Date: January 5th, 2015The elders chose Elli to be queen, but they chose wrong in this beautifully crafted novel in the tradition of Kristin Cashore and Victoria Aveyard.

Sixteen-year-old Elli was a small child when the Elders of Kupari chose her to succeed the Valtia, the queen who wields infinitely powerful ice and fire magic. Since then, Elli has lived in the temple, surrounded by luxury and tutored by priests, as she prepares for the day when the Valtia perishes and the magic finds a new home in her. Elli is destined to be the most powerful Valtia to ever rule.

But when the queen dies defending the kingdom from invading warriors, the magic doesn’t enter Elli. It’s nowhere to be found.

Disgraced, Elli flees to the outlands, the home of banished criminals—some who would love to see the temple burn with all its priests inside. As she finds her footing in this new world, Elli uncovers devastating new information about the Kupari magic, those who wield it, and the prophecy that foretold her destiny. Torn between the love she has for her people and her growing loyalty to the banished, Elli struggles to understand the true role she was meant to play. But as war looms, she must align with the right side—before the kingdom and its magic are completely destroyed.

Author Bio:Twitter | Facebook | Tumblr | Goodreads
Sarah Fine is the author of Of Metal and Wishes, Of Dreams and Rust, The Imposter Queen, and The Guards of the Shadowlands series. She was born on the West Coast, raised in the Midwest, and is now firmly entrenched on the East Coast, where she lives with her husband and two children. When she’s not writing, she’s working as a child psychologist. Visit her at SarahFineBooks.com.

A teen is forced to make a fresh start after witnessing a violent
crime—but love and danger find her anyway in this novel from Becca Fitzpatrick,
theNew
York Timesbestselling author of the Hush, Hush saga.

Stella Gordon is not her real name. Thunder
Basin, Nebraska, is not her real home. This is not her real life.

After witnessing a lethal crime, Stella Gordon
is sent to the middle of nowhere for her own safety before she testifies
against the man she saw kill her mother’s drug dealer.

But Stella was about to start her senior year
with the boyfriend she loves. How can she be pulled away from the only life she
knows and expected to start a new one in Nebraska? Stella chafes at her
protection and is rude to everyone she meets. She’s not planning on staying
long, so why be friendly? Then she meets Chet Falconer and it becomes harder to
keep her guard up, even as her guilt about having to lie to him grows.

As Stella starts to feel safer, the real threat
to her life increases—because her enemies are actually closer than she thinks…

Review:

I feel like I spend the
majority of time reading Becca Fitzpatrick's books and wanting to love them
instead of actually loving them. But I must admit, DANGEROUS LIES is probably
my favorite book she's written. Even if I nearly DNF'd because of 1 sentence.

Stella took awhile for me to get used to - she's
a bit abrasive and happy to blame everyone for her problems in life. She's a
bitch - she just is. While she does grow as a character throughout the book,
it's that initial first 1/3 of the book that took a some muscling through. And
then, when I thought she turned a corner, she thought one scathing remark
(about if the pregnant teen mom ever wished her baby would die) that nearly set
me off.

OK, it did set me off.

And I almost DNF'd the book. I put it down for
several days but ultimately went back to it. I finished it and while I fell in
love with Chet, all the over dramatic, soap-opera worthy plot twists mostly
made me roll my eyes.

Fitzpatrick seems like a sweet, genuine author.
But I'm starting to think her books just aren't for me.

Nov 13, 2015

I'm a planner. An organizer. A compulsive, neurotic person who loves to map out the daily details of life in a physical way. So when I was approached about DESIGN THE LIFE YOU LOVE, I was all over that because it's a planner + adult coloring book + journal.Take a look at a sample of the work in here:

DTLYL is geared toward helping you manage your life or a certain aspect of your life (like, blogging?).

ABOUT DESIGN THE LIFE YOU LOVE:

A joyful, inspirational guide to building the life you've always dreamed of, using the principles and creative process of an award-winning product designer.Life, just like a design problem, is full of constraints-time, money, age, location, and circumstances. You can’t have everything, so you have to be creative to make what you want and what you need co-exist. Design the Life You Love is a joyful, inspirational guide to building the life you’ve always wanted, using the principles and creative process of an award-winning product designer. Through four steps that reveal hidden skills and wisdom, anyone can design a life they love!

So, here's a little secret: I never stopped coloring. I started when I was about two years old. Admittedly back then I wasn't very good. My coloring was more abstract than anything; a mash of colors bleeding together. I viewed lines of the page as guidelines but not rules - I embraced my inner Picasso and defied convention by coloring however I saw fit.Yes, I was a rather artistic at age 2. There's always been something soothing and comforting about holding something in your hand that brings a piece of paper to life - be it a pen, a crayon, a colored pencil or a marker.

What I love about I LOVE MY HAIR is that it allows me to be creative while offering me some relaxation and stress relief during my most chaotic days. The drawings are amazingly detailed and fun.

ABOUT I LOVE MY HAIR:For fans of Johanna Basford’s Secret Garden and Enchanted Forest comes a hip, gorgeous doodle coloring book about all things hair. Unlike other adult coloring books, which depict nature scenes and cityscapes, this title celebrates strong, confident women with a passion for style, design, and fashion.Revel in the mesmerizing patterns and intricate details of Andrea Pippins’s delicate pen-and-ink illustrations, ready for you to color, complete, and embellish. Lose yourself in page after page of bold hairstyles and accessories, from rows of braids, to Mohawks, to sweeping updos, to cascades of ribbons and beads. Be transported to another world as you ink in Medusa’s slithering coiffure, Cleopatra’s elaborate headdress, and Marie Antoinette’s towering bouffant.Perfect for experienced color-inners and newcomers alike. Coloring enthusiasts of all ages will love this empowering and stylish book. So go ahead—let your hair down, grab some pens or pencils, and add some color to your life.

Nov 9, 2015

I am so beyond excited to be launching the HELLO? blog tour. HELLO? is a beautiful YA debut from one of my dearest friends, Liza Wiemer.

Title: Hello?

Author: Liza Wiemer

Publisher: Spencer Hill Contemporary

Publication Date: 10.15.2015

Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary

Series: N/A

Rating: 5 Stars

Summary (from Goodreads):

Late one night, in a moment of deep grief, Tricia places a call to her deceased grandmother’s old phone number. She expects the disconnect notice, but is thrown when another teen— also up late and coping with his own frustrations—answers. It’s Emerson, and though they're perfect strangers, Tricia senses an unexplainable, deeper connection between them.

When his phone rings, Emerson expects it to be his sometimes-overbearing girlfriend Angie, but instead ends up transfixed by Tricia’s tenderness and heartache. The two make a pact, thus setting the events of HELLO? in motion.

HELLO? is the story of five small town Wisconsin teens: Tricia, who has lost her family and is trying to find her way; her over-protective boyfriend Brian, a potter; the perfectionist Emerson; his girlfriend, the insecure and unpredictable Angie; and her tough best friend Brenda, an aspiring actress and screenwriter.

Told from all five viewpoints: narration (Tricia), narration (Emerson), free verse poetry (Angie), screenplay format (Brenda), narration and drawings (Brian), HELLO? offers a textured account of five lives and weaves together the stories of these teens into a compelling narrative of serendipity and a whole that is much greater than the sum of its parts.

Review:

From the very first page, Liza Wiemer draws the reader into HELLO? with her beautiful and sophisticated way of storytelling. Some authors have to try or build up to establishing a teenager voice, but Wiemer does it on page one and for 5 different teens in 5 different ways. It's rare that you can tell from the very beginning how special a book is - but HELLO? nails it.

Reminiscent of the Academy Award winning movie Crash, HELLO? is told in the perspective of 5 teens who lives wind up intersecting and tangling together in a way that can only be described as jaw-droppingly brilliant.

I know what you're saying - Hannah, aren't you a little biased because she's your friend?

No. Not at all. I will sadly admit that I probably wouldn't have picked up this book if Liza hadn't been my friend and I would have been missing out on an incredible book.

HELLO? is a special book because of the unique way it is told. From prose to verse to screen play format to visual art, Wiemer excels at each medium, layering the story in a way that makes it unique, captivating, and timeless.

I am the author of two non-fiction adult books, short stories, and newspaper and magazine articles. A pre-school to high school educator now writing YA fiction full time, which I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE! And I'm a diehard Green Bay Packers fan.

For my author posts on writing and my upcoming YA novel HELLO?: http://www.LizaWiemer.comUnique "job" experiences: I spent a summer selling popcorn in a Koepsell's popcorn wagon while listening to awesome music on the Summerfest grounds in Milwaukee. I also know my way around a fender and a quarter panel and under the hood of a car. I spent a few years driving to accident scenes, scrapyards, hospitals, auto repair shops as a claims adjuster for an insurance company.

Nov 8, 2015

Welcome to the beginning of the BREATH TO BREATH Tour! Welcome Craig Lew to the blog as her talks about his writing process:

I develop my stories similar to the development process of a movie studio. My process has five major phases:

1)Concept/Pitch

2)Story Beats

3)Character Reports

4)Chapter Cards

5)Write

If you start with a great concept, even a poorly written manuscript can be salvaged with strong editing. If you start with a weak concept, even a well-written manuscript will be found lacking. To ensure I have a great concept, I start with my pitch rather than creating one after I’ve finished a manuscript.

I spend a lot of time working out, then reworking the “tweet” version of my story. Yes, 120 characters, no spaces. I then expand this version to less than 90 words for pitch-ability.

The pitch or logline is the essence of the story. It’s THE concept. It answers the question “What am I trying to write?”

After I’ve worked out the story concept, I create a beat sheet. My beat sheet consists of the 15 major turning points of the story.

If the concept is the story’s soul, then the beat sheet is the story’s skeleton. Each beat is connected by change in the hero’s fortune, a cliff hanger, or a decision.

The beat sheet gives the story its structure. I gravitate to a standard three-act movie structure. It doesn’t mean I can’t go off on a tangent or experiment. It does mean I have a map of how to get back to my story if I get lost.

Breath to Breath is inspired by a true story, so there was a lot of research performed before the story development process began. My biggest obstacle was figuring out how to bring the horrific events suffered by young William forward in the timeline to occur when William was 17. The second obstacle was pulling the adult William’s wisdom and insight backward in time and in an appropriate way for a teen, and then shaping it to where he was just beginning to understand.

Once I’m satisfied with the structure, I define the characters.

Characters should have “7 Dwarves of Separation.” What I mean is that each character should be recognizable and different from each other on the page. Even if you took away their names, they would be recognizable by their voice, personality, quirks and motivations.

I generally define the hero first, then place characters around the hero that show off the hero’s spirit. Some have opposing beliefs, while other characters are overzealous in their similar beliefs. The hero’s choice to follow or oppose others gives the hero three dimensions.

The process is like modern dating. I create character reports akin to an eHarmony profile. The difference is, I’m not concerned with how attractive they look. I’m concerned with their character traits. The most important traits are their biggest dreams, their worst nightmares, their super powers and their flaws.

With Breath to Breath, the hero is based on a real person, so honoring him while allowing the fictional events to shape his character was a challenge. I spent a lot of time becoming friends with William before delving into the research phase. Building trust takes time, losing it takes only one misdirected sentence.

So at this point, I know what I’m trying to write, I know the major turning points of the story and I know my characters very intimately. This next phase is where I fill in the details.

I take 3 by 5 cards and lay them out into chapters. Screenwriters might call these scene cards. This exercise allows me to view my story in its entirety. I see where each character enters, where they exit and how they shape the hero’s journey. Each card can represent three scenes or, if I’m writing in verse, one poem. The cards help me create subtle set ups that lead to long pay offs. I recommend numbering your cards, perchance you receive an uninvited guest.

Once I have reviewed my chapter cards, made adjustments to characters, tested the story structure and compared these results with my original pitch, then I write.

I write until blue smoke rises from my keyboard and blood drips from my eyes. Every morning I wake up and mediate on the story, on the next scene, on the hero. I write at least ten pages a day but with Breath to Breath I discovered I could write seventy-five pages at one sitting but zero pages the next day. The issues in Breath to Breath were and are so dark, I had to give myself time to recover.

My writing isn’t an intellectual exercise, it’s an emotional journey. I live my characters, I dream their decisions and I exalt in their victories and cry at their failures. If writing your story doesn’t move you, then reading your story won’t move your audience.

I often write a ninety-page screenplay and novelize from that. It’s not a shooting script. It’s for my eyes only. A shooting script should have cut aways and multiple Points of View creating the visuals that drive the story forward.

Breath to Breath was written in first person and only through William’s eyes. In the novel we are allowed to experience not only what he sees, but what he feels, smells and tastes. We can read his innermost thoughts. In a movie we can only watch or listen.

I have lots of help in my daily writing process. Tina, my partner in life, makes me double espressos throughout the morning, which help kick my mind into drive. Incense helps clean the air and clear my senses. Smittens, my cat, helps keep time with her tail, I call it her fuzzy metronome. I must admit that yoga is also very helpful to fight any writer’s block you might encounter.

I hope you find something of value in my process. I wish you great success in your writer’s journey.

Uprooted from his home and sent to live with his estranged father, seventeen-year-old William's world is feeling tenuous at best. When he's unexpectedly dragged into a situation in which he has no choice but to help an abused four-year-old boy, William’s world is rocked to the core as he discovers the truth behind the mysterious young boy’s stories of extreme sexual abuse. He and this boy are connected in ways William can't even imagine and as horrible memories begin flood his consciousness, William’s rage drives him to steal a neighbor's guns, convinced he must kill those responsible for causing a boy so much pain and betrayal. How William finds the love and compassion he needs to make the right choices is the heart and pulse of this riveting verse novel. Inspired by a true story, BREATH TO BREATH explores what hurt and healing really mean: to survive you hold your breath, but to live you must exhale.

Craig Lew’s storytelling career began even before he had learned to write. As a child, he used his father’s tape recorder to capture tales about strange planets and scary creatures. His favorite story openings at that time were, “Once upon a junk yard heap …” or “It was a dark and stormy night.”

A movie producer, director, award winning author, illustrator, and screenwriter, Craig still favors a Hitchcockian thriller over a broad teen comedy. Regardless of the genre, he believes the best stories involve a hero who is either seeking love or giving love. At heart he’s a big, mushy romantic.

Craig spends his days with his fiancé in a house on a hill with the corgi land seals Yobo and Zeekie, a three-footed Boston Terrier named Moogie, and Smittens, the kitten with the marshmallow mittens.

I strive to spread good karma. Artistically, I enjoy pushing the envelope because I believe this makes more room in the middle. I believe the keys to success are dreaming big, working hard, and being nice.